7 tips to create a restaurant-standard kitchen

In today's culinary world of exotic gastronomy, we're spoiled with an abundance of choices when it comes to eating out and dining in style. Along with everything else, the way we eat, enjoy and consume food has become a truly globalised phenomenon – the options are plentiful, international, and so too the ever-escalating quality and ingenuity of the food we eat.

The foodie revolution has made us all more aware of the range of ingredients and preparation methods on offer, and how accessible they are to us. For this reason, we've become far more discerning when it comes to good dining. In fact, many of us have taken it upon ourselves to start our own food revolutions right in the heart of our own homes, bringing restaurant quality dining from the exterior to the interior. Indeed, today's kitchen designs have come a long way since their humble beginnings, and it's not unusual to find restaurant-quality set ups in our domestic mix.

Today on homify, we're taking a tasty stroll through the modern home kitchen: how to turn yours into a restaurant standard space with style and flair. Dinners at home will never have tasted so good.

Make it modern and spacious

Richmond Full House Refurbishment

In days of old (and not so old) kitchens were lumped together without much thought for the sort of culinary and social activity they'd actually require. Limitations were defined, and the kitchen was relegated as a poky space, without adequate room to move or entertain. Recent years have shown us how crucial the kitchen is as a social space, and how the more room the merrier makes for smoother meal preparation.

This example presents a classic, fantastic design setup: spacious parquetry flooring provides a hint of traditional class; central marble top bench space with embedded sink and cooking hardware offers beyond ample preparation and serving space; to say nothing of the additional rustic table in the foreground. Bright, light and open, this is a kitchen the breathes and expresses true style: your meals can't help but taste better from the good vibes you'll feel cooking within it.

Give yourself ample pantry space

For a restaurant standard kitchen, you need a little restaurant standard space, and that goes for preparation and goods alike. The virtues of a spacious pantry cannot be overstated. here in this example from Maple & Gray, we see how it's done: a multi-level bench space enclosed by folding doors, housing microwave and multiple rungs of spices, products and ingredients for weeks worth of delicious meals. A good kitchen is an organised kitchen, and this one certainly has a place for everything.

Install industrial hardware

Chalet Gstaad

One of the central mantras of good kitchen design comes down to an adept selection of hardware. Go for broke when it comes to hardware, while keeping the accessories to a minimum. Accessory-wise, select and showcase only what you really use and need – if that sandwich press is only gathering grease and dust, there's no need to keep it on board. As for hardware – cabinets, benches and fittings – spend a little extra and you won't regret it: this is the stuff that creates the foundation of your kitchen's aesthetic, and it with so much daily use, it ought to be as hard-wearing as it is aesthetically pleasant.

Incorporate stainless steel benchtops

New Crane Wharf

Today's restaurants relish in clean, industrial setups, and this typically involves a good quantity of stainless steel furniture, hardware and bench space. Years ago, interior designers might call you mad to want to install industrial grade cafeteria steel in your home. But alas, times are very different, and what works in the restaurant kitchen now works very well in the domestic interior. If your kitchen design lends itself, why not consider a sleek stainless steel bench space like this one? Functionally, it'll lift your chopping and preparation game tenfold, as well as providing a strikingly strong aesthetic. Hard wearing and scratch resistant, steel cleans up well and will shine for good.

Combine traditional appliances with a modern atmosphere

But of course, there wasn't a whole lot of sleek modern material like stainless steel in the kitchens of old, and fair to say, our forebears had little problem churning out good, staple meals each and every night of their lives. In today's modern range of kitchen options, you can champion the old while upholding the new: as we see in this fine example, a slender, though spacious cottage-style kitchen harnesses a modern fit-out with light wooden island bench space, while demonstrating more traditional proclivities with this fantastic old black cast iron stove. Cook it old school, and serve it fresh: a blend of old and new can bring your home a versatile, contemporary yet eclectic feel.

Create a feature wall

It's an international world these days and we all relish in sampling from the great smorgasbord of exotic influences. It's true of the food we choose to eat, the fusions of culinary fare that we constantly create, and so too, the interior elements that we add to our home's inner aesthetic. When it comes to kitchen, why not mirror the modern variety of spice of offer, and employ it to your kitchen's visual experience a well as the gastronomic? In this example, we see how a thoughtful and imaginative choice of wall tile can give a kitchen a little striking personality: almost Moorish or Iberian in its aesthetic, a leap and jump from the plainness of beige and white. It's about as delightful as the Michelin-star quality food you'll be serving up.

Dress it up to impress

Style really is everything, and the kitchen need not be left missing out on the fun! Take a gander at this delightfully playful, chic kitchen setup: chessboard black and white tiles evoke the checked uniforms of chefs in busy commercial kitchens all over the world; a central bench and dining space artfully attaches itself to an imposing gloss black oven block; stainless rangehood at the ready up above; the whole scene, an aesthetic joy. Keep things interesting in the kitchen, and your food will follow.